Summer Time is Rally Time

Summer Rally: when nerds gather to point out the many ways your bike is wrong.  Right?  Nah, not all of them.  The 2024 Velocette Owner’s Club summer rally was my 33rd week-long, 1000-mile event with the club.  As you might have guessed, I’ve owned a lot of motorcycles over the past 45 years, so what brings me back to this event rather than others?

It’s the people, and the riding, and the bikes, in that order.  Good, eccentric folk ride Velocettes; it was always thus, I reckon even when they were winning TT races in the 1920s-60s (last one was the 1967 Clubman’s TT).  And, riding a charming old motorcycle through beautiful countryside is a balm for the soul, and I feel spiritually refreshed cruising the curves on a motorcycle.  And the motorcycles are really fun to see, discuss, and ride.  If you’re nice, most folks will allow you a little saddle time if you’re curious about a bike you’ve never tried: it’s how I got a hankering for a Moto Guzzi Falcone actually, after riding John Ray’s lovely example on a summer rally many moons ago.

For starters, it’s pretty much the only rally of its type, although in the past couple of decades other clubs and events catering to Real Riders have sprung up, including a bi-annual Vincent OC rally, and the bi-annual Cannonball and Chase events, which are great, but different.  I do love Velocettes, the hand-built singles (mostly) that are amazingly smooth and fast, with superb handling.  Which means, they’re actually very comfortable for long-distance riding.  But I haven’t always ridden a Velo on the VOCNA summer rally, including this year, as my 1960 Venom Clubman balked at the modifications I’d made over the past few months, and simply refused to start.

So the trusty ’65 Triumph Bonneville, the first motorcycle Suzie Heartbreak and I bought together, would have to do.  I felt guilty at first, and even brought the Venom along in the van to the rally hub at the Nordic Inn in McCall Idaho, thinking I might dig in and work on the magneto, maybe sort the issue.  But after driving two days to get there (some did it in one, as I did on the way home to San Francisco), I was more interested in socializing that getting oily, again.

Have you ridden in Idaho?  This rally, organized by Kim Young, was a 900-mile loop, starting in McCall, with successive nights at Wallowa Lake OR, Lolo Pass MT, Salmon ID, Stanley ID, then a return to McCall.  35 riders joined in; men and women, young an old, with about half the entries on Velocettes, and half on other vintage machinery, ranging from a ’79 Honda CBX, a quartet of BMW /2s, two Triumphs, a BSA Gold Star, a Yamaha XS650 LTD, a Honda 250 dirtbike, and what have you.  In other words, while the club is all about keeping Velocettes alive and kicking, we’re agnostic about what you ride on the rally, with the hope that someday you’ll buy a Velocette, or get the one you own running, and bring it along.  There’s no better place for expert / experienced advice and a helping hand to sort issues.

Issues?  The #1 issue for older bikes that use a magneto is the magneto itself.  They’re aging, rebuild specialists seem pretty dodgy, and modern capacitors fail regularly or are installed badly.  In sum, if your mag is spotty, you will have no fun at all.  My magneto was the reason I wasn’t riding my Venom – well actually it was an alternator conversion that didn’t regulate voltage properly, that caused my new electronic ignition conversion to freak out and misfire, so I put the mag back on, and the bike wouldn’t start.  Too much fun!  But, I had a backup, and it’s Suzie’s favorite, so somebody was happy.

Mind you, I tried to break it.  We visited the Bayhorse ghost mining town, and noted that the whole state park is designated an OHV area, with tons of trails.  So what we were two up on a 60-year old air-cooled Triumph on street gearing, surely we could make the 4000′ climb to the top of the mountain?  We got about 5 miles in before the Triumph objected, fouling its plugs from heat and altitude, so we listened to her discomfort and turned back on the steep and rocky ATV track.  Almost!

As we had a local guide (Mark Weinhorse) giving us notes on good dirt roads in Idaho, we took several of them, which were more civilized than the ATV trail, and took us through some lovely countryside.  Living half the year on a dirt road in Mexico has definitely eased my comfort on gravel and dirt!  No panic there.  And, the Triumph handles beautifully on dirt.

 

Mid-July is increasingly warm these days, and vexed by wildfires.  We had variable visibility over our week, and mostly poor air quality, which is too bad as the mountains we rode through are absolutely spectacular. We still had a great time, stopped at cool old bars, restaurants, antique shops, and the occasional hot springs, of which there are very many.  Some of our crew hiked an hour uphill in the full sun to reach…hot water, which was perhaps not so refreshing, but was still enjoyable, especially the body temp waterfall.   We tried to swim every day in rivers and lakes, and only missed one day, when we chose to drive the chase truck, and got in late after hauling the only Harley-Davidson on the rally to the only H-D shop on our route, in Lewiston.  The staff at Hell’s Canyon H-D fixed the issue with no charge, and the bike was back in action in an hour.  One Velocette was hors de combat after partially melting a piston, likely due to a failing magneto; another Velo lost its sparks…see above.

Riders ages varied from 18 to 78, with the average probably mid-50s, which is pretty good for today’s vintage motorcycle scene that can look like a box of  we make a point of inviting younger riders to join us.  The camaraderie is second to none, and there’s always an unplanned adventure or two to join in, from local dirt roads off the route (but not too far off), local hikes, seaplane rides, hot springs, mountain hikes, or in my case, a gorgeous canyon to explore on the way to the rally, for taking a few mototintypes.

The bottom line?  Get out on your bike, and see the world.  It doesn’t have to be a full week, but you’ll feel better if you do.  It’s a great way to clear your head.

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